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Practice map

This is just a practice map, I started it by using jezelf's tutorial technique of using difference clouds to shape the Map alpha, oceans, and landmasses.

Then I used my own pattern taken from a tileset of RPG Toolkit (www.toolkitzone.com) for grass, and a difference of techniques learned from other tuts and my own PS knowledge to create the oceans and mountain/elevation ranges.

I'm still working on it, but this is how much I've got done today in about 4-5 hours of time. Starting from nothing, I think I've done pretty good considering I wouldn't have been able to do something even 1/4 as good a week ago.

If anyone sees anything to point out, or has any comments/criticism, please feel free to add.

Not a bad start.. but that texture is driving my eyes crazy. Try just making it a solid color instead. Nice beaches with the variable widths, but unless this is a really close up or the beaches are huge, they would more than likely not show up at the scale I expect this to be at.

ok, thanks.. this is really my first stuff done digitally so I may not be quite what you expect at first. but I'm sure in time with your guys help I could be good too.

Trust me, it's not that bad for a first try. My first tries were rather horrible, I spent a lot of time playing with GIMP, mainly trying to emulate others posts, and just a short 6 months later I believe I have come a long way.

Keep going with Jezelf's tutorial until you get to the part where he adds color to the land. I LOVE that technique of painting some various colors and blurring to get some nice transitions.

Oh yea... this is a tremendous improvement. You may want to look at your color scheme next. You have some neon green which I assume is meant to be some forest(perhaps mountainous forests?) and I think this really distracts the eyes (at least mine).

I like the beach effect(really like actually), but am not sure if it's appropriate to the perceived scale of the map. I could be wrong on the scale though, so perhaps you can let us know what the scale should be. Unless the beaches are huge or the scale is in the 20 miles or so range, they would not be visible.

Oh yea... this is a tremendous improvement. You may want to look at your color scheme next. You have some neon green which I assume is meant to be some forest(perhaps mountainous forests?) and I think this really distracts the eyes (at least mine).

I like the beach effect(really like actually), but am not sure if it's appropriate to the perceived scale of the map. I could be wrong on the scale though, so perhaps you can let us know what the scale should be. Unless the beaches are huge or the scale is in the 20 miles or so range, they would not be visible.

it's not to scale.. scale and me don't get along so well.. heh..

but yeah, I put the coastline in there b/c it looked horrible with the land just dropping off into the sea, especially with the grass texture at the time.

At the scale it's supposed to be, you probably wouldn't even see the coast, or very little at that.